


might be taking a risk

by longituddeonda



Category: We Can Be Heroes
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Coworkers - Freeform, Crushes, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Other, lemonade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28394130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longituddeonda/pseuds/longituddeonda
Summary: He didn’t come into Headquarters often, but with the low staffing, he had been there every day. And, well, you may have had a bit of an off-and-on crush on him since he first brought you coffee a few years ago (and if you could pretend he hadn’t bought coffee for everyone in mission control, it felt special).or...Reader works a Heroics, and Marcus offers her a ride home one day. Cuteness and awkwardness ensues.
Relationships: Marcus Moreno/Reader, Marcus Moreno/gn!reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 75





	might be taking a risk

Fourteen long days of work without any days off. You couldn’t really complain, especially not to any of your friends; working at Heroics was interesting and they had always been jealous of the job. But at the end of the day, it was still work. In an office. Doing the same satellite monitoring work you had done elsewhere. 

It was only so busy because some big threat was around, not that it really concerned you or anyone else in the city. The whole thing was theatrics in your opinion; damage to buildings was the only real-world consequence of the threats. And on top of that, over half the heroics were out with some stomach bug or something. 

So you kept getting called in to sit for hours at the control center, monitoring three different computers and sending out commands. The whole thing would have been much worse had Marcus not been around. 

He didn’t come into Headquarters often, but with the low staffing, he had been there every day. And, well, you may have had a bit of an off-and-on crush on him since he first brought you coffee a few years ago (and if you could pretend he hadn’t bought coffee for everyone in mission control, it felt special). It wasn’t anything you could have acted upon; at the time he was married, and after his wife died the crush felt kind of… bad. 

It wasn’t your place. He probably wasn’t looking for anyone anyway; he had a daughter to take care of, and from what you had seen from the few times she had visited the headquarters, their relationship was very strong. Plus you enjoyed the camaraderie that came from him along with the entire group of people who worked in mission control. But it was nice to have him around, softening the blow of some of the more strict members of the team.

You were still thankful to get off a little early today, and gathered up your things to leave the building. You were quick about heading to the foyer where the little train that took employees out of the forcefield and to the parking lot awaited. It was a hot summer day, and you were not looking forward to the short walk from the train to the bus station, and hoped you wouldn’t be waiting too long there either. You had grown up here but you had never liked the heat. 

Scanning your ID card, you stepped into the car and sat down near the back. 

The train was nearly full and about to leave just as someone scanned their card and held the doors open to jump on. Marcus Moreno. He glanced around, noticing the only free seat was next to you and walked over to you as the vehicle lurched forward.

“Is this seat taken?” He asked.

You shook your head. “It’s all yours.”

You moved your bag from beside you to the ground to give him enough room. 

He smelled nice.

That was, embarrassingly, the first thought you had at that moment. He definitely wore cologne, and it fit him well. Orange and bergamot, plus hints of sea breeze or something. Good. You could imagine picking it out for yourself too. 

“How have you been?” Marcus asked, and you looked around to see who he was talking to, except he was staring right at you. 

Your eyes widened. “Good. I’ve been good.”

“I know you haven’t gotten your usual weekends,” he said quietly. You could sense a bit of guilt in his voice. Over what, you weren’t sure. It wasn’t like he was still in the business of being a hero and all that, and it sure as hell wasn’t his fault the others were sick.

“It’s fine,” you lied. “I know what I signed up for when I applied.”

“But no one really does,” he said. “Not here, at least. There’s always a few surprises.”

You nodded. “I guess.”

The train stopped at the edge of the parking lot, the doors hissing open. 

“Have a nice day, Marcus,” you said, standing up.

“Wait!” Marcus shot up from his seat, “Can I at least walk you to your car?”

You took a deep breath as you stepped out of the train, Marcus following you down into the warm, dry air. “I don’t have a car, I take the bus.” You jutted your chin over to the bus stop on the other side of the parking lot. 

“Oh, okay.” Marcus looked down at the asphalt, hand reaching up to his face, brow furrowed in thought. 

“It was nice talking to you,” you said, making to turn around.

“Where do you live?” Marcus’s voice rang out once more and you looked at him quizzically. “I mean— _around_ where do you live? I can drive you home. It’s hot outside and the bus only comes every half hour.” 

“Oh…” That was, unexpected, to say the least. “Um, I live in one of the old townhomes, over by the lake.”

“That’s on the way to Missy’s school, and our house. If you’d like, I can drive you?”

You nodded. “That would be great, thank you.”

Your smile wavered as you followed him to a parking spot a few meters away from the train. _Of course, Marcus had one of the nice spots. He’s not just some computer person._

He even opened the fucking door for you. Your heart flipped.

_It meant nothing. Just coworkers. Just a coworker offering a ride. Nothing romantic about that._

Except the leather seats were soft and the car smelled just like him. You inhaled as Marcus slipped into the driver’s seat, started the car, and pulled out of his spot. His hands curved around the steering wheel, and as he made the turn out of the lot, you couldn’t stop staring at the way his muscles moved in his arms. 

Your eyes snapped forward as he reached over to turn on the radio, or rather, to turn on music from his phone. It must have switched to whatever he was playing on the ride over here, some indie rock band you vaguely remembered listening to about ten years back. The volume was low and the music relaxing. 

“When we get closer you’re going to have to give me some directions,” Marcus said.

“Of course, yeah,” you said, perhaps a bit too fast. 

“So, what do you do outside of work?”

“Um…” your mind blanked. _What did you do?_ You couldn’t think with Marcus glancing over at you, uncomfortably stiff in the passenger seat. “I read, mostly.”

Shit. That was dumb.

“I do a bunch of geeky things you’d expect someone whose job is satellite monitoring, computers, and data analysis,” you added. 

“Geeky things?”

“Yeah, like astronomy,” you said. “And I build computers.”

“You build computers?”

“I started just making one for myself, back in college,” you explained, not sure if Marcus’s interest was out of genuine fascination or ridicule. “Now that I’ve got a few, I mostly tinker around with the motherboards.”

“That’s impressive,” Marcus said, and then laughed. “I hardly know my way around a computer for anything beyond what they need me to do in the control room.”

You smiled. “I guess that’s why they hired me then. What about you?”

“Me? I don’t do much anymore. My daughter—she keeps me busy. We like to watch movies together though. Both of us like science fiction, but not the big-budget ones. We try to find the most obscure films.”

“That sounds fun,” you said. And you meant it. You didn’t get to do anything that cool with your parents and were sure that if you were to ever have kids (which you may have planned on once, but that ship sort of felt like it had sailed), you’d want them to have experiences like that too.

“It is,” he said. “I try to spend as much time as I can with her now, make sure she has someone around for her.”

You nodded. You were never sure how to talk with all the other people your age who had kids. It was always difficult; being single at your age when most of your old friends were married with kids in elementary, or even middle school. 

“Left up at the light,” you said. 

There was a weird energy in the car, and although you couldn’t tell what Marcus meant by everything, you were beginning to suspect that the soft glances and the slight smile on his face meant something a little deeper than just driving you home. And you were a little more than thrilled at the thought.

“Right at the stop sign. And then mine is the skinny house on the left. With the dark green door.”

Marcus pulled into a parking spot on the street. 

“Thank you,” you said, picking up your bag from the floor. “I really appreciated this.”

“Absolutely no worries. Can I walk you to the door?” Marcus’s face lit up with his words, and you couldn’t help but smile.

“I’d like that.”

You stepped outside, pushing closed the car door as Marcus did the same, and then crossed the street to your house.

Your front door was up a short set of stairs, which Marcus followed you up. You fished out the keys from your bag and attempted to open the door, hands shaking with nerves you didn’t realize you had.

What this was, you weren’t sure. If it was nearly any other man, you’d be concerned, but this was Marcus, with whom you had been work friends for years. Hell, you had been to office parties with him and even been to some potlucks at the homes of other coworkers at which Marcus had been in attendance. It would be fine. Except your nerves weren’t in concern for your safety, rather the jumbled mess of feelings that was making your stomach twist and your heart jump a bit.

You got the door unlocked and turned back towards Marcus. You could say goodbye. You _should have_ said goodbye. But then—

“Do you want some lemonade?” you blurted out. “I made it yesterday and it’s cold and it’s hot outside and you drove me here so…”

That might have been too much.

“Sure.”

Or not.

Marcus followed you into your home, down the hallway to the kitchen. You went straight to the fridge to pull out the pitcher of lemonade

You could hear Marcus shifting his weight with the creaking of the old parquet flooring. The glasses were on the other side of the kitchen, and you kept your back to him to avoid eye contact. You weren’t sure what to say. 

_Marcus Moreno was in your house._

You stilled your rapidly speeding breath and you reached up into the open cabinet, pulling down two cups. The age of your house meant there was no central cooling system, and with your long work days of late you had opted to leave the split cooling off during the day except in your bedroom, so the kitchen was fairly warm. You hoped it wasn’t too much for Marcus. 

You poured the two glasses and turned around to find Marcus much closer to you than you had expected.

“Here.” You placed a glass in his hand and stepped backward, leaning up against the countertop. 

You brought your own glass up to your lips, taking a sip and staring down at the drink. _You were absolutely helpless in these sorts of situations. You just had to say something. Anything._

“This is good,” Marcus said. “Did you say you made it?”

Okay. That worked too. “Yes. The family who lives next door, their oldest daughter and her husband have this outside the city with a massive yard and they have a small garden and so many fruit trees. She was visiting them last weekend and brought over the lemons.”

“We have a lemon tree in our backyard too,” he said, a smile erupting on his face. “Missy used to make lemonade in the summer but she always forgot to add sugar. But we haven’t done that in a while. It hasn’t produced many fruits the past few years.”

“Maybe next year?”

“Maybe next year.” Marcus looked around your kitchen. “You know, this place is amazing.”

“Thanks?”

“I guess I thought all of these were apartments or something.”

“Some of them are,” you explained. “Most of them have been recently renovated too.”

“And yours hasn’t?”

“No, not since the fifties.”

Marcus took a few steps forward and turned to lean on the counter next to you. “How did you end up with such a beautiful place?”

 _Oh. Not this_. That wasn’t the story you were so inclined to tell to someone you were interested in. Someone that might be interested in you too, if you were reading his expressions right. _Hell_ , his hand was mere inches from yours on the edge of the counter, and you were pretty sure it was getting closer.

“Well, I didn’t buy it alone, if that’s what you’re asking,” you said. “But it’s been quite a few years since someone else lived here. We thought we were going to get married within a year or two of the purchase, but things happen, you know? Their name wasn’t on the deed cause of bad credit, and they didn’t really care about the house much either. So I was left with a nice home and quite a mortgage to pay off.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, honestly I’m happy with how it all turned out. I wasn’t stuck with the asshole, and I got to keep the place. I mean I could have sold it, but, like you said, it’s a nice place. Before I worked at Heroics I was doing some tech stuff for an aerospace company, programming satellites and whatnot. It was, um, comfortable, enough to stay here.”

“I didn’t know you did that,” he said. 

You looked over at Marcus. The look in his eyes was something you hoped to never forget: soft and crinkled at the edges, a smile mixed with fascination. I was a look you hadn’t been on the receiving end of for a long time. It felt nice.

You shook your head and stood up. “Yeah, well it’s not that interesting. Sounds much cooler than it is. I was mostly sitting in an office writing code. Anyway, do you want to go sit out on the patio instead? It’s probably a bit cooler out there than in here. Or, you probably have to go, sorry. I didn’t think about that. You have your daughter to pick up and—”

“No, I’d love to,” Marcus said, pulling out his phone. His shoulders sank at whatever he saw there. “Actually, you’re right, I do have to go. I’m really sorry, I would love to spend more time with you, but, Missy. School gets out in ten minutes.”

You laughed. “It’s fine, I get it. I don’t mean to keep you here.” 

Marcus set his empty glass down on the counter. 

“I’ll walk you to the door,” you said with a smile. 

“I really am sorry, I would like to stay,” Marcus explained while walking out of the kitchen and down the hall. “I wish I had more time but…”

“It’s fine, really,” you reassured him. You followed him outside onto the small landing on top of the steps and closed the door behind you. 

Then you had a thought. Maybe it was a bad thought. And maybe it was a result of your misinterpreting everything. But it was spilling out of your mouth before you could stop it. 

“Do you want to come over sometime for dinner? When you’re available? Like, as a date?”

_Shit. No going back now._

Marcus smiled, “I would.”

Oh. Okay. You exhaled, maybe a bit too loud. That was good. More than good. You couldn’t help but smile excitedly. 

“I’ll call you to work out a date and time? Okay?” Marcus asked.

“You don’t have my number.”

Marcus reached down into his pocket to pull out his phone, unlocking it and clicking a few buttons. “Here.”

He extended his arm to you, handing you the device, which was open to a new contact page. You typed in your number, and then your name, taking a little extra time to scroll through the emojis to put a little lemon next to it. You clicked ‘done,’ cementing your spot on his phone. You handed it back, earning a chuckle from Marcus.

Oh god, you loved that laugh.

“Right, see you around? Tomorrow?” you asked, hopeful.

“If everyone’s still out sick, then yes. Tomorrow.”

“And if they’re not?”

“Then I guess I might just have to leave you with this to hold you off.” Marcus smiled, leaning forward and pausing a bit away from your face, giving your room to close the gap, if you so chose to. 

And you did, leaning forward and pressing your lips against his. They were softer than you expected, and warm.

Marcus placed an arm at your waist as you wrapped your arms up to his shoulders, and whether it was you leaning back or him pushing you forward, you felt your back gently hit the door behind you. 

It was a chaste kiss, but you were smiling into it all the same, mind whirling at the close scent of Marcus, his breath hot against your skin, his hand on your waist, stable and comforting, his hair, which your hands were snaking up into, wrapping the soft curls around your fingers. 

He pulled back after a long few seconds, leaving you a bit breathless. You bit your lip as the corners of your mouth pulled up into a grin. He laughed.

“I’ll call you,” he said.

Then he jogged down the steps and over to his car, leaving you leaning against your front door, waving as he drove off.


End file.
